Pioneer Square Labs’ Post

Wow, what a night! Yesterday evening Conor Healy, "Scott" Yusuke SUGINO and I hosted our TECH WEEK by a16z event with David Zager from Pioneer Square Labs focused on the creator economy. 𝙄𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙗𝙡𝙚. We had a packed house of 200+ people composed of many friends, founders, investors, and corporates. Our panels featured exceptional speakers who shed light on key dynamics at play right now. My talented colleague Conor Healy led the first panel with Benjamin Grubbs, Matthew Lowe, Alexandra K. Moore, and Zach Katz. They discussed the various paths by which institutional capital is flowing into the creator ecosystem, the fundamental 'human' considerations in these investments, and the undeniable sea change underway from traditional media to creator-led franchises. We also, of course, discussed the impact of AI on creator businesses. Some of the memorable quotes (paraphrasing): 𝘈𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘶𝘮 --> "Netflix is most afraid of YouTube." 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 --> "Mr Beast just filed a patent for a bank." 𝘍𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 --> "Creators cannot have a Plan B." We followed the investor panel with one that I hosted with four inspiring founders building software for creators. They were Austin Chen, Joel Clay, Jeff Ponchick, and Lauren Schneider. We discussed the challenges of selling software to creators (and their teams), the importance of authentic founder-market fit to these buyers, the big inflection points and unlocks in their GTM and product development, and how they balance building for the broad spectrum of creator types from nano to macro. Some of my favorite quotes (paraphrasing again): 𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 --> "I built it because I was disappointed by the incumbent software as a Twitch streamer." 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘺 '𝘯𝘰' --> "We just sit right on top of their inboxes." 𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘶𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 --> "They have been burned by unfinished products too many times." 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘰𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 --> "Solve one big problem at a time without overwhelming them." Honestly, that's just the scratching the surface. Thank you to our partners Johnny Mathias and Ryan Temming from Wells Fargo, as well as Richard Bull, Trent Dykes, and Kenji Funahashi from DLA Piper. Can't wait for the next one!